GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE UPFRONT WITH CONTRACTS: TSI

TSI officers at their office in China Town, Honiara. Photo: Courtesy of TSI

Transparency Solomon Islands says the Government needs to be more up front about its contracts, after million-dollar contracts were awarded to two MPs.

The prominent MPs, Selwyn Riumana and Steve Abana, own ships that were awarded public contracts to embark on an electoral commission mission this week.

Radio New Zealand International reports that TSI Executive Officer Daniel Fenua says, under the Government’s procurement rules, contracts worth more than 68-thousand US dollars must go through a competitive tender process, and be approved by the Ministry of Finance’s Central Tender Board.

Mr Fenua says the ship contracts were approved by the board, but there was no public awareness or advertising of tenders.

He said this is involving a huge sum of money and people really need to know.

He adds information on the Ministry of Finance website is very limited and the public need to know why these two politicians got these two contracts.